Midtown Lunch

My brother just got back from a vacation to jolly old England. Out of all his trip photos, I’ll admit that I was most captivated by a photo of a chicken tikka sandwich from Subway in London. Say what? Why don’t our Subways serve chicken tikka sandwiches?!! And more importantly, where can I get a chicken tikka sandwich in midtown?

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After months of construction on the former Little Pie Company space, the Magnolia Bakery at Grand Central Terminal is open for business. They officially opened on Saturday but are still working out the kinks and figuring out hours. Tourists and fans of mediocre cupcakes rejoice! The rest of us should be prepared for hordes of gawkers ogling the cupcake frosting rituals.

Now here’s a sandwich from a drug store I’ll try!  According to Eater, the Duane Reade in Grand Central Penn Station is now serving pre packaged sandwiches from Zabar’s in a fancy little kiosk. No word on what kind of sandwiches are available, or how much they are, but I’m sure they are 1000 times better than the poor excuse for sandwiches being served at the Times Square Walgreens. Normally if I’m in GC I’ll probably end up making my own sandwich at Murray’s Salami, but I suppose I could try the Duane Reade/Zabar’s sandwich… if I was dared.

Photo courtesy of Eater

If you’ve been reading Midtown Lunch since the beginning, you know that I never pass up a chance to talk about how amazing New Orleans is (for example, my senseless, nothing to do with Midtown, live blogging of Jazzfest). And since today is the final day of Mardi Gras, it’s time for my obligatory “this is where you should eat lunch on Fat Tuesday” post. I suppose you could go to Bourbon Street Bar & Grill for the faux N.O. atmosphere and not authentic at all muffuletta, but if food is what you care about there is really only one choice: the under-appreciated, not mentioned nearly enough, take out window of the Grand Central Oyster Bar (just off the under ground food court in the basement of the Grand Central Terminal).

Sure, the restaurant is super expensive, but the take-out window has got a bunch of sandwiches under $10… including a fried oyster po’boy ($8.25) that doesn’t quite transport you to New Orleans, but gets you pretty damn close. (And is certainly the best option in Midtown.)  I had it last year on Fat Tuesday (along with a good buddy of mind originally from Nawlins), and the only other place I’d recommend on a day like today would be the Popeye’s (on 40th btw. 7+8th), which incidentally enough is celebrating its 2 year anniversary today! (Provided you count years from one Fat Tuesday to the next.)  Either way it’s going to be a fat tuesday…

Maybe this wasn’t the best day for this post. The Friday after Thanksgiving is quite possibly the biggest sandwich eating day of the year, followed closely by the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Maybe you’re sick of sandwiches.  Maybe if you look at another sandwich, it’s going to make you puke.  But maybe, just maybe, the mark of a truly great sandwich is one that can still make you salivate, even on the Monday after Thanksgiving.  So, in that spirit- I’m proud to present the Midtown Lunch entry in the Murray’s Salami challenge.

First, let’s get everybody brought up to speed.  A month ago Murray’s Cheese opened up a salami counter in the Grand Central Terminal Market (entrance on Lexington and 43rd). Everything in the market is very expensive, and Murray’s is no exception.  But they’ve got a staggering array of amazing meats and charcuterie from some great purveyors around the country, and for a guy like me that is tough to ignore. Unfortunately, they are prohibited by Grand Central from selling anything that would resemble a “sandwich” or packaged lunch (probably to protect the food court vendors downstairs.)  So, if we were to enjoy the new Murray’s Salami, in a lunchtime form, it was up to us to create our own sandwiches, made from ingredients foraged from the market.  Most importantly, it would have to be under $10 a person. (Spending more than that on lunch, is a crime against humanity… unless it’s an all you can eat buffet- in which case you are allowed to spend a little more.)

Blondie and Brownie weighed in first, followed by Lunch’er Dave, and finally Lunch’er Max. And now, the Midtown Lunch entry, from start to finish.  In all its glory.

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And we have another entry in the Grand Central Terminal Market sandwich challenge.  To recap: can you make an under $10 Midtown Lunch’ish sandwich, or sandwiches, from ingredients purchased from the newly opened Murray’s Salami (and the other shops in the Grand Central Terminal market.)  Blondie and Brownie weighed in first, followed by Lunch’er Dave, and now… Max.

2 of my compatriots and I ventured in the semi-brutal cold to Grand Central Market to try the Murray’s challenge. (We went a little crazy, also picking up 3 pieces of very nice seasonal Murray’s pumpkin cheese cake for dessert, but I am excluding that splurge from the challenge.) We gorged ourselves on speck, mozz, and salami, had a photo shoot and assembly party back @ the office. I think our per capita expenditure will definitely be lower next go round (oh yes!), but this was gooddamn delicious!!

Last week there was a complaint about not being about to get a sense of scale from the photo… so after the jump is a list of ingredients, plus a photo that gives you better perspective of the sandwich size.

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Photo added to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Photo Pool by nycblondieandbrownie

Blondie and Brownie accepted the Murray’s Salami challenge, and proved that you can put together a tasty looking sandwich in the Grand Central Terminal Market for under $10. Ingredients: coppa from the newly opened Murray’s Salami, mozzarella from Murray’s Cheese, and bread from Corrado’s Bakery.  Also, Eater is reporting that if you spend more than $25 at Murray’s Salami, they’ll give you a four pack of Niman Ranch hot dogs.  It may be time to round up three friends, and head over to the Grand Central Terminal Market (entrance on Lexington and 43rd).

Eater confirms that Murray’s Salami (from the owners of Murray’s Cheese) has opened in the Grand Central Market (enter on Lexington & 43rd).  The good news? I am of the opinion that the more cured meats there are in Midtown, the better.  The bad news? They are prohibited by contract to sell anything premade- like sandwiches. I wonder if this has something to do with the food court downstairs?  However, salami lovers shouldn’t be discouraged.  Since Murray’s Real Salami will be located so close to Corrado Bakery, they’re hoping people will put two and two together (literally).

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week we’ll post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap. For this week’s recommendation we’re back to Profiled Midtown Lunch’er Kate.

This one goes out to the commuters. Or the non-commuters who just like to hang around train stations, like me. Grand Central Station is a veritable treasure trove of deals for cheap drinks and tasty bites, if you’re willing to deal with the hustle and crowds. Gathered in its lower level are food stands that rep for some of the more notable restaurants New York has to offer, along with some of the most reasonable drink deals I’ve ever seen. So here I bring you my mini-tour of what Grand Central has to offer.

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